It’s amazing how much the perception of football at North Carolina and N.C. State has changed over the passage of one short year.

Tom O'Brien

Last July, the Tar Heels were riding high with a roster full of future NFL stars and predictions of greatness while the Wolfpack was coming off its third straight losing season with a coach sitting squarely on the hot seat under the watchful eye of a forceful new athletic director.

Now as the teams prepare to open their respective fall camps next week, the roles are all but reversed.

While State is looking to build on the momentum of a nine-win season, UNC faces an uncertain future as it waits to find out how hard of a hit it will take from the NCAA for nine alleged infractions involving agent conduct and academic fraud.

The difference was unmistakable at the ACC’s Football Kickoff media event in Pinehurst on Monday, where the line of questioning to State’s Tom O’Brien was much more positive and relaxed than it was at the table hosted by UNC’s Butch Davis a little later in the day.

Butch Davis

To listen to both coaches, the contrast has been even more noticeable on the recruiting trail, where each school’s fortunes have been directly affected by their stunning recent role reversal.

“Just in our confines of the Triangle, being the first team to win five games in the conference, being the first group to get to nine wins for the season and getting into the (final) top 25 helps us a lot going forward,” said O’Brien, who was hired by the Wolfpack at the same time Davis came on board with the Tar Heels.

“There’s a whole different way that recruits are looking at us this year than they were a year ago.”

The same can be said for those players considering UNC. Only not with the same tone.

While Davis managed to keep a strong recruiting class together this year in the face of NCAA allegations and the negative publicity that surrounds it, he’s admittedly having a harder time rounding up prospects for the current cycle leading up to Signing Day 2012.

And things only threaten to get worse as the Tar Heels play the waiting game until their scheduled date before the NCAA’s committee on infractions on October 28.

“It has been a challenge,” Davis said. “The uncertainty of things and the timeline … when is there going to be some kind of resolution?

“The one thing we’ve told recruits going back to last year’s signing class was, ‘There’s a process.’ We’re going to have to follow that process as the NCAA requires. There’s the investigative part, the allegations part, the response part, then October.”

Though there’s no telling how severe the penalties against UNC will ultimately be, Davis and his staff are clearly bracing for the loss of some scholarships by being more selective in their recruiting than they have been in their four previous seasons with the Tar Heels.

“We’ve been very, very guarded and selective about the kids,” Davis said. “We’re not out there offering maybe some kids we would’ve in previous years. We’re taking a long, hard look at who we go after, who fits into the future of the Carolina program.”

That future, however, is as uncertain as the economy.

UNC has already lost several players to the negative recruiting tactics of rivals and will likely lose more before all is said and done.

It’s a process O’Brien knows all too well, having had to put up with it for most of his tenure in Raleigh. But even though the perception of his program has shifted dramatically during the past 12 months, the State coach doesn’t think the Tar Heels’ loss has been the Wolfpack’s gain.

“There are guys that grow up blue and guys that grow up red, and it doesn’t matter what happens,” O’Brien said. “They aren’t changing.”

Tom O’Brien lets his players get away with smoking dope, breaking the law, etc … with no punishment. ZERO punishment. I don’t understand how the media presents Tom O’Brien as running a tight ship. Laughable. NCState is obscure in the national spotlight so Tom O’Brien’s sweeping-under-the-rug goes without being seen. If the media would look a little closer his loose ship is evident. And players love playing in a loose ship.

Hey Heels, if sitting out games is now “ZERO” punishment, then why all crying about all the games that your cheating players hat to sit out? Whenever a NC State player breaks the rules, they get punished accordingly. Tom does not put up with any bull. I suppose that is a concept that is foreign to you, since under your coach, anything and everything goes, as long as you don’t tweet about it. It’s funny that you Powder Blue girls keep bringing up that incident, or the ONE parking ticket that a basketball player got. Is that really your only rebuttal for having a football team with an Associate Head Coach and Recruiting coordinator on an agent’s payroll, a former player /drug dealer/agent runner with unlimited access to players and facilities, multiple players receiving money and benefits from agents, multiple players receiving improper academic assistance, a player turning in plagiarized papers in a 400 level class, a tutor giving improper help, money, and who knows what else to players, that same tutor being on the payroll of the head football coach, players receiving thousands of dollars in parking tickets on campus, a player getting tickets in FIVE different cars with NINE different license plates (some of which traced to known criminals). Shall I keep going? Go crawl back in your hole until basketball season.

So Butch Davis is quoted as saying his recruiting has become more difficult and that they’re being more selective this year, and Tom O’Brien says he’s seen a positive bump in his recruiting and I’m showing colors? You people never cease to amaze me.

Another State fan’s wishful thinking. According to Rivals, UNC has 12 commitments for next season with eight of them ranked in their position; State has 10 commitments with just two of them ranked. Who’s hurting?

…and then you attack the writer for “showing his true colors”? Typical smurf logic. You can’t take the truth or understand the facts. You guys have your big heads so far up your tight rectums it is laughable.

What I read on the Internet are rankings from Yahoo Sport’s site Rivals.com, the same Yahoo that beat all of you ACC writers in breaking the NCAA investigation story on UNC and was way out front the entire way in its coverage — not just some blogger.

Yes, of course, Brett must be a State homer in disguise if he is writing an article that paints your dirty, cheating Heels in a negative light. Trust me, we NC State fans dislike Brett on occasion as much as you do. He was just reporting what the coaches (one former coach now I guess) said themselves. I know that most of you didn’t actually go to college (much less UNC CH), but really, your reading comprehension is terrible.

mw is right..anybody who reads brett’s articles knows he hates on nc state. He def is not a wolfpack fan. he sounds a bit cranky in his comments above. Its fun to see all of these jealous tarheel fans.

[…] Role reversal has affected recruiting at both State, UNCTwo coaches. Two programs. Twelve months. It’s amazing how much the perception of football at North Carolina and N.C. State has changed over the passage of one short year. (read more) […]